Taking its name from the French verb ‘faire’ (‘to make/do’), this exhibition highlights five sculptors leading their diverse medium in innovative and experimental new directions. They include Rose-Marie Crespin, who uses her dress-designing know-how to knit stunningly vivid and intricate thread sculptures, and Angélique, whose immaculate busts and clever still lifes are made from organdie woven with cotton, resin and polyester. In other rooms, Nantes artist Françoise Quardon treats her light-hearted and whimsical subjects using a sophisticated range of techniques and mediums (digital photography, porcelain, tapestry). And the final pair, Laurent Esquerré and Isabel Bisson-Mauduit, find common ground in re-purposing everyday items like fragmented crockery and aluminium foil to spectacular effect.
Alongside the exhibition, which places as much emphasis on the production processes as on the works themselves, the 116 hosts a range of companion events from January 20-April 16 2016. The wide-ranging programme includes debates, concerts, children’s workshops (presented by Isabel Bisson-Mauduit herself) and a lights-out ‘tactile visit’ enabling punters to feel their way around the walls of the show.
TRANSLATION: HUW OLIVER